1984?

Frightening.

Is Orwell’s world of Big Brother and 1984 really that far off? I remember reading Orwell’s book – which is among one of the most depressing I’ve ever read – and thinking Things can’t ever get like this. Can they?

From what I recall, the world of 1984 is ruled by Super Powers who have a stranglehold on the world’s wealth. In order to burn up some of their vast reserves, they routinely go to war or have civil strife. Of course, everyone is controlled and governed via Big Brother, and, as the Borg once said, “Resistance is futile.” And it truly is.

The older I get though, and here I go with the pessimism for today, I begin to worry about these incredibly huge industries we have.

My father feared Walmart. As a truck driver, he knew the danger of one store or business becoming so large and powerful that they could eventually gain a monopoly over ever facet of business.

I thought this was foolish, until he told me that a truck driver friend of his said how Walmart will open a Super store in smaller communities (like this one or Crookston) just to drive out the smaller chains (Kmart and Pamida, the latter has closed both here and in Crookston. Not to mention some of the smaller hardware stores). This, I guess, is just the shark-like nature of business. However, what Dad related to me next really scared me. Apparently, his friend said that the next step, which he had seen occur in larger areas, is for Walmart to then shut down their Superstores in the small towns. This forces the small town residents to travel back to the larger areas, like Bemidji or Grand Forks or Fargo. The frightening thing is the malicious nature behind this.

They could just let the smaller stores be instead of ruthlessly driving them out of existence.

But when you have that much power and money, I guess they can do that.

Now whether that is true, I don’t know. It could be a conspiracy theory.

But what truly frightens me is Exxon.

Check out this

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/01/news/companies/exxon_earnings/index.htm

That’s 10.89 BILLION dollars of profit! Maybe Orwell wasn’t that wrong. Especially when you read this –

http://www.ucsusa.org/scientific_integrity/interference/interference-at-the-epa.html

I guess when you have enough money, you can buy enough lobbyists and fund enough politicians that you can even begin to manipulate the truth. Now that is truly 1984-ish.